The 'dead' Honest Truth
by BethyBoo97
Summary: Jack's gone but is what he said to Brian true or just a cover story? I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- I do not own New Tricks or any of the characters and this is true of all my fics.**

Sandra looked up from the computer and immediately her eyes fell upon the pile of possible replacements for Jack. She missed him, how could she explain it though, no she just had to carry on like normal, like nothing had ever happened. A tear fell from her eye and just this once she chose not to wipe it away, what did it matter she was on her own. She quickly flicked through the pile of job applications, she didn't really look at any of them, no one would ever be able to replace Jack and even if she did get someone new, the team would never be the same.

None of it added up how one minute they'd all been happily working on the Kirby case and then the next Fisher had barged in with his Victorian nonsense and suddenly Jack was leaving, and that very same day. It was also odd how Brian was acting odd. To anyone not really paying attention he was as normal as he could be and carrying on as normal, if you paid more attention you'd be able to tell how desperately unhappy he was and how he missed his best friend. Nothing made sense.

She decided it was time to leave, time to go home and lose herself in another bottle or maybe two of wine. It was what she did before leaving that was odd.

Sandra had had all weekend to think about what she'd discovered on that Friday morning and was fully prepared as the boys walked into the office. They needed to have a chat. She walked out her private little office and sat in her now favourite spot. Jack's seat.

'Okay, so who'd like to tell what's going on?!' she almost shouted as she looked from Gerry to Brian. She knew Gerry had no idea what she was on about he was as clueless as her, but she needed to make her point.

'With all due respect Sandra, what the hell are you on about?' Gerry asked her. She looked at him.

'Okay, Brian care to enlighten us.' She looked over at him and spoke with venom. Brian looked at her and took off his glasses.

'About what?'

'Jack.' Sandra hissed.

'Oh.'

'Go on then.' Sandra prompted after he'd been silent for a while.

'But I promised.'

'He's not exactly here to find out you broke it, is he!' Sandra retorted.

'Erm well…' he was really struggling now 'he told me not to tell you and you can't get in contact. He has cancer.' She froze. This was exactly how she was when she'd found out the truth about her dad, history was repeating itself, only it was slightly different and he wasn't actually her dad although she thought of him as it.'

'No. No! NO! That's not true.' She ran through to her office and sat at the desk. Gerry followed her through.

'Sandra.' He said as he got nearer to her and began rubbing her shoulders to comfort her.

'No. It's not true, Gerry. It's not. Look.' She spoke desperately as she opened up on the computer what she had before.

'See, Brian isn't right.'

**Hope this was okay. It came to me after tonight's episode and then my dad turned to me and said what if Jack isn't really ill and he made it up. I'll explain more about that at the end though as I don't want to ruin it now. Please just stick with it and there'll be more soon. Reviews welcome!**

**Beth xxx**


	2. Chapter 2

He looked down at the screen, she had the witness search page open, he looked up to the top to see whose name she had typed in. Jack Halford's. He looked down at the rest of the screen 'Access Denied.'

'What the hell!?' Gerry exclaimed as he processed what was on the screen.

'He's lied to all of us.' Sandra screamed as she walked out the office.

Gerry walked back into the office to find Brian desperately trying to find Gerry's stash of alcohol.

'Where is it?' Brian kept repeating getting louder and more desperate every time.

'Where's what mate?' Gerry said.

'You know. Your stash.'

'No Brian. You don't need it. Brian, sit down. We need to talk.' He sat down at his desk. 'Jack is not dying, that was his cover story. Now I don't know where he is, but his police file is blocked.'

'Witness protection?' Brian asked a little brighter.

'I don't know mate, but that's defiantly what I was thinking. We need to do some digging. I don't like seeing you or Sandra like this, so the sooner we find the truth the better. So where do you suggest we start?'

'Strickland.' Came Brian's reply, but he knew even if he personally didn't know then he could talk to the commissioner.

'Okay you go do that and I'll go see Sandra and bring her back.' Gerry told the older man.

'I don't think she'll want to come back.'

'Yeah? Well I'll drag her back.'

So off they both went.

'Sandra?' Gerry asked as he picked up his phone after sitting outside Sandra's house, after realising she wasn't there and leaving her 20 missed closed.

'Gerry. Why did you feel the need to mess up my phone by constantly calling?!'

'Well I needed to talk to you and you weren't at your house, I'm worried about you. So get your backside back to work and I don't care if you don't want to go back. I'll see you there in 10 minutes.'

She hung up, she thought about it for a couple of minutes, first she thought she'd be stubborn and not turn up, she'd soon changed her mind though. She needed to know where Jack was and why he'd lied.

**Hope this is okay and you are all enjoying this. Feel free to review.**

**Beth xxx**


	3. Chapter 3

Sandra arrived back to find her little office in use, with the doors and blinds closed. Looking around the room she noticed Gerry in the corner making coffee.

"Want one guv?" Gerry asked her as he came closer.

"Erm no thanks. What's going on?" she asked referring to why the office was sealed off to the outside world.

"Brian and Strickland are in there. But don't worry about that; first we need to calm you down."

"Gerry I am perfectly calm." She told him as she didn't like the worried tone to his voice.

"No you're claiming to be fine, that's different to actually being fine." He told her as he took her arm and guided her towards her favourite chair.

Sandra had no idea what had happened, but in the blink of an eye his arms were around her and her head was on his shoulder. "Okay, I miss Jack. I can't believe he lied to me." She opened up to him before changing her mind, "lied to all of us."

"Sandra, its okay we all miss him and we're going to get to the bottom of this, I promise. Do you wanna tell me why this is getting to you so much? Because there is no way all your mood swings are just because you miss him."

"Okay then but promise you won't laugh?" he nodded "he was the closest thing I've had to a dad since I was 14. I thought he'd never do anything like my _saint of a dad._" She told him the last bit sarcastically. "Now it turns out he's just as bad." She finally got out as a small tear rolled down her face.

"Sandra, to be fair to Jack, he didn't have an affair with a prostitute, he didn't have a child with them, he didn't cover up a murder and I'm pretty sure he hasn't killed 'imself." She half heartedly laughed.

"Okay no he didn't, but it's the same principle. He lied to me.'

"Maybe he had no choice?" Gerry told her trying to put something in to her head to try make her see a little sense.

"No, you always have a choice Gerry."

At this moment Brian, Strickland and someone Sandra didn't recognise walked out of her office. Silently she set about untangling herself from Gerry's arms before anyone noticed and asked any awkward questions. When she'd managed to, she spoke, now allowing the attention to fall upon her.

"Anyone like to tell me what's going on?"

"I think you'd better ask Brian and DI Jones." Strickland said to her before leaving.

She turned back around to the other two. "Okay, so tell me what's going on and I want the complete truth."

"Sandra he's in witness protection." Brian told her.

"Why?" she whispered not really wanting to hear the answer but needing to know the truth. Now it was DI Jones' turn to speak.

"He witnessed a murder. The murderer spotted him and has been threatening him ever since. We decided the best thing to do was to place him into witness protection."

**Hope this is okay, I'm kind of just going with it now as I lost the plan I'd written while cleaning out my room. Feel free to review, they make my day.**

**Beth xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

Once Sandra had let what she'd been told sink in she again chose to speak, regaining her sense of strength.

"Okay, that's all well and good but considering we aren't going to hurt him, just tell me where he is!"

"Sorry I can't do that." Detective Jones told her.

"Sorry but why not?" Sandra asked in her strong tone.

"He didn't want anyone to contact him." With that Detective Jones walked out.

She stalked around the office, thinking of something, anything she could do.

"Sandra you're wearing a hole in the bloomin' hole in the carpet." Gerry told her, she turned to him and gave him her glare, the one reserved especially for him. "Sit down, I happen to like the carpet as it."

"He can't hate us that much that he doesn't want to see us. Why didn't he tell me?"

"That I can't answer Sandra, but Brian's gone out searching for information."

"I don't know what I can do. If they won't tell us what can we do?" He knew this was affecting her quite a lot, she wasn't usually the giving up type.

"I don't know. Tell you what, it's nearly home time; come back to mine and I'll make you dinner and we can have a drink." She took a while to decide before just simply nodding.

In the car back to Gerry's Sandra's phone rang.

"Hello?" Sandra asked the caller

"Yeah, it's me, Brian."

"Well I got that. Anyway what did you want?" Sandra asked slightly more grumpily than she'd intended.

"I think I've got it."

"You've found him?" Sandra asked getting more excited

"Not quite, but I think I know how to find him."

"Do I want to know how?"

"Nope."

"Well done Brian. Anyway I have to go. See you tomorrow."

"What was that?" Gerry asked her as he pulled up outside his flat.

"Brian thinks he's found him."

"Then what are we doing here?" Gerry asked.

"He's left the office, anyway I quite fancy that dinner and drink you told me about."

**Quite a short chapter and I'm sorry about that, but I think I know where it's going again now. As I lost the plan before but I have a new train of thought. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to review.**

**Beth xxx**


	5. Chapter 5

"So what do you want for dinner?" Gerry asked Sandra as she sat in his kitchen and he rummaged through the freezer.

"I really don't mind."

"Oh stuff it, let's order a take-away. I can't be bothered to cook."

"Aww what a shame I was looking forward to a home made meal for a change." she told him playfully, clearly feeling brighter since Brian had told her he thought he knew where Jack was. "Chinese?" Sandra added.

Okay, I'll go look for a leaflet." he came back a few minutes later with the leaflet.

"Ooh I haven't eaten at this place before."

"Wow, a take-away place that Sandra Pullman hasn't been to."

"Oh shut up and get ordering." Sandra retorted.

"Well you haven't told me what you want."

"Egg fried rice and sweet and sour chicken please."

Not long later they sat on the sofa with their meals and sat talking.

"What do you think Brian's found?" Gerry asked her.

"With any luck he's found Jack again." Sandra replied.

"I doubt it he'd have said. He must have just found something that'll lead to Jack." Gerry told her.

"I wonder what the lead is." Sandra thought out loud.

"Come on eat your meal and stop worrying, we will find him. Anyway do you wanna watch the tv on?"

"Erm yeah why not."

"Well there's the remote, you can pick."

Soon enough they were sitting watching paranormal activity 3.

"Hey Sandra, you can cuddle up to me if you get scared." she stuck her middle finger up at him but she did pull herself up into his side.

This was more of a filler chapter, there will be more soon and it'll revolve more around Jack. Thanks to anyone who has read and/or reviewed!

Beth xx


	6. Chapter 6

They sat curled up on the sofa watching the film and not long later they were both asleep only to be woken up by the doorbell.

"Ugh." Sandra groaned as she got up off the sofa and out of Gerry's arms she was tired and angry at being woken up. Behind the door she found Brian. "Brian what do you want it's getting late…"

"I'VE FOUND HIM! I'VE ONLY GONE AND FOUND HIM!" Brian beamed at her as he stepped into Gerry's house, forcing her to take a step backwards when he took her hand and span her around in happiness. Gerry got up and made his way through to the hall to see what all the commotion was about.

"What's going on?" Gerry asked.

"Sorry, you were asleep so I opened the door." Brian flashed them a questioning look as he was confused at what was going on. "We were watching a film and we both fell asleep." She on purposely left out she had fell asleep in his arms but Gerry knew and she could see him flashing her a grin out of the corner of his eye.

"I found him Gerry!" Brian started.

"I think you better sit down and we can talk about this and figure out what to do. Cuppa?" Gerry asked.

When Gerry returned to the living room with 2 cups of tea and a glass of white wine for Sandra, he found the two deep in conversation.

"So what have you found Brian?" Gerry asked.

"He's living in Hollyhill. It's a small village built up around a lake about an hour and a half away."

"How did you find him?" Sandra asked him.

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask."

"Did you hack the police database?" Sandra asked knowing full well that was what Brian had done, he nodded.

"So what are we going to do now?" Gerry asked.

"I don't know, I think we need to see him but we don't want UCOS to get in trouble." Sandra replied.

"I hardly think he'd dob us in." Gerry replied.

"I suppose not, Brian go home and get directions and get to work early and we can all go down to this Hollyhill place."

"Okay, I'll be at the office for 6."

"Blimey Brian, I said morning not the middle of the night. Make it 8 and it'll be okay!" he nodded and then left, she turned to Gerry. "We found him Gerry. We did it."

**Hope this is okay, place names are made up! Reviews welcome.**

**Beth xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

She regretted making Brian wait until 8, she'd stayed at Gerry's that night on the sofa as when Brian had gone they went back to the film and fallen asleep in the same way. Now though she'd been up since 5 and had no hope of getting back to sleep. She had loads of questions running through her head to ask Jack but she was also just glad to be able to see him again.

"Go back to sleep Sandra." Gerry said sleepily as he felt Sandra moving around in his arms, the situation was almost natural and not at all awkward that it made neither one of them think.

"Do you think I like being wide awake at 5 in the morning?!"

"Well why are you then?"

"Can't sleep."

"Morning." Brian called as he walked into the office finding Gerry and Sandra sat in front of him.

"Ready?" Sandra asked as she gathered her bag and coat.

"Yeah, I have the address here." Brian replied producing a scrap of paper from his jacket pocket.

"Great, I'm driving. Lets go."

"What's wrong Sandra?" Gerry asked as the car had been stationary for almost 10 minutes not far away from Jack's new house.

"Nothing. I'm thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Let's go then."

"You go, I'll follow on."

5 minutes had passed and still she couldn't move, it was like she was glued to the seat. Brian had gone for a walk to wake his legs up and Gerry was stood outside the car smoking.

"I can't do this Gerry."Sandra told him through the open window.

"Do what Sandra?"

"Get out the car to go and see him."

"This was what you wanted."

"Not any more." Gerry put the cigarette out and climbed into the car behind her.

"What's changed?"

"He obviously doesn't want us to find him, he didn't want us to know the truth or he didn't trust us with it and either way I don't think I want to know. It's going to cause more hurt and what's the point?"

"Is this really Sandra Pullman giving up?" Gerry asked.

"Nope, this is Sandra Pullman being patient and waiting. I'm not giving up I'm just delaying it for a while."

"For how long?"

"Until I can figure out what to do."


End file.
